CSI Miami: Four: Out in the Field
by BlackRaven
Summary: Forth in my CSI Miami series.The team investigates numerous bodies buried in a field-some of them 20 or more years old. Though they are far from Miami-the case hit's close to home for some of the team-will they be able to do their job and stop the killer?
1. Default Chapter

This is part 4 of my CSI MIAMI series – For all of you joining me for the first time:

You don't really need to read the first 3 chapters to understand this one – although I'd love it if you do – the only thing you need to know is that there's a new character named Jamie Sullivan who used to be a profiler with the FBI – Oh, and in the last chapter she and Speed kissed...

That's about it...

Enjoy this episode

* * *

Calleigh rolled over in her bed and opened her eyes to the darkness. For a second she didn't realize what woke her up, until the phone at the side of her bed gave another ring. She reached in the darkness until she found the receiver and picked it up, ignoring the sound of something crashing to the floor.

"This better be good" she mumbled sleepily into the receiver. She didn't bother with a polite greeting – only two people ever bothered to call this late – her father and Horatio – and this irritated form of hello was perfect for both of them.

"Calleigh, good morning..." Horatio's voice greeted her over the bad connection, sounding very far away.

"No Horatio" She glanced at the watch next to her bed, which was now lying on the floor – seemingly broken. "It's 3:30 am, morning is still a few good hours away actually, and if you're calling me at this time – I doubt it will be any good. Where the hell are you calling from?"

"Andelusia"

"Andelusia? Is that a new night club or something?"

"Actually...Andelusia, Alabama"

"What?" she sat upright in bed, raising her voice at the telephone "Horatio, What the hell are you doing in Alabama in the idle of the night?"

"The Covington county forensic lab asked me to fly up here in a chopper and take a look at something..."

"What's going on H?"

"We have two bodies as of right now...it's getting worst by the minute – look, I need you to get the others and get over here – there will be a helicopter picking you up in about 2 hours..."

She was already half way across the room, opening her closet and pulling out clothes, balancing the phone between her cheek and her shoulder "Horatio, isn't Alabama a little out of our jurisdiction?"

"They need our help Calleigh" was all he said

"What the hell" she sighed back "I'm always u for a fieldtrip"

* * *

Horatio stood beside the old dirt road and watched as two beat up jeeps made their way towards him, creating a cloud of dust behind them as they went. The jeeps came to a stop beside him and Speed, Jamie, Erik and Calleigh climbed out – each of them carrying his large forensic kit.

"So H" Calleigh placed her kit on the floor and smiled at him "What was so important you brought us all the way up to Alabama?"

"Take a look!" He steed aside and gave them a chance to take in the scene in front of them.

There was a small field in front of them, or at least what used to be a field – now, the land was dry and bare, nothing had been grown there in years. At the far end the field ended with a row of trees that blocked most of the view but in the distance they could still make out a few old and run down structures that seemed to be abandoned farm houses and barns. The entire field had been marked with police yellow tae that was blowing in the light morning breeze – the same breeze that was picking up the dry land and turning it into dust that flew into their eyes. 5 or 6 police officers were scattered around the field in teams of two – each one holding a shovel. There were 4 holes already dug in the dry ground – each the approximate size of the human body.

They were graves

"What the hell happened here?" Erik was the first one to recover enough to speak

"2 days ago the Covington county highway department decided to put in a new road sign right here. When they dug the hole to put in the sign they stumbled on some human remains. The police came in dug the body out and took it to the corner's office" Horatio started walking and leading them into the field "The coroner examined it but there was one big problem! He found an extra bone – an extra femoral human bone actually..."

"Another body" Speed concluded

"Yeah, so the police came back here and started digging looking for another body – so far, we found three!"

"Three extra bodies?" Calleigh said in disbelief

"Four, along with the first one – all in various stages of decomposition. The forensic unit here is small and outdated – they don't have the equipment or the manpower to deal with this – the police commissioner is an old friend which is why he called us over to help"

"Well" Speed placed his kit in the ground, rolled u his sleeves and picked up a shovel "Alexx is already in the morgue examining the bodies – So I guess we're joining the digging party"

"Erik, Speed, you guys help with the digging – if there are more bodies in this field – I want to find them. James – we need pictures, lots of them, take photos of everything – no matter how trivial it seems – we still don't know what we're dealing with here and until we do, I want t make sure we don't miss any potential evidence. Calleigh, I want you to start collecting evidence – again – take samples of everything you see. I doubt if this is our primary murder scene but until we rule it out..."

"We know" Jamie assured him by placing a warm hand on his arm "Don't worry, we'll get everything"


	2. chapter 1

PART 2

They were all working hard under the unforgiving sun, the ground was hard and not easy for digging, and the temperature continued climbing all afternoon – reaching unbearable heat. Horatio tossed the shovel aside and looked around the field where 10 fresh holes had been dug in the last hours – several of them were now marked with numbers and yellow police tape. His phone rang and he took a second to wipe his brow before answering it – hearing Alexx on the other end of the line.

"What have you got for me Alexx?"

"Well. The equipment here is pretty outdated so most of the tests are going to take a while" she started telling him "but this is what I have for you so far – the first body is female, approximately 25 years old, Afro-American..."

In the county morgue Alexx leaned closer to the body and moved a few strands of hair from what was left of the young woman's skull "she was beaten to death H, half of the skull is gone, the entire left side of the skull was bashed in by some kind of blunt object"

"Anything else you can give me?"

"Not on this one" Alexx moved over to the next table where a second body was laid, although it was hard to describe it even as a body anymore. The corpse was badly decomposed, most of the flesh was long ago eaten away and rotting and the bones were exposed in several places through what little flesh was left "The second body is older, I'm talking much older Horatio, Isent bone samples to the lab to have them dated but if I had to guess I'd say this body is about 8 or 10 years old"

"Is it female?"

Alexx checked what was left of the pelvic bone "No, male, looks like this one has been shot – I may have a bullet here for Calleigh"

"I'll tell her" He saw Erik waving frantically at him from the other end of the field "Do what you can Alexx, call me when you have something"

He hung up and made his way over to Erik in a few long strides. He pushed through the few police officers that were already gathered around and Calleigh and Speed moved aside to allow him a look. The grave was deep, much deeper than the one they found the first bodies in. the body itself was wrapped in some kind of fabric, but most of it was already eaten away – revealing the body itself.

"There's something wrapped around the neck" Calleigh pointed out "Maybe it was strangulation"

"There's enough body tissue, Alexx will probably be able to give a good cause of death" Horatio rose to his feet and gave the police officers behind him a sign to take the body away as Speed came closer – whispering to him.

"H, that makes 6 bodies – and we haven't even finished half the field"

Horatio nodded but didn't answer, instead, he gave Speed a look that after years of working side by side needed no explanations. When Speed walked away Horatio noticed Jamie standing by the jeep, watching them, and made his way over to her. He leaned against the jeep next to her and for a few moments, neither one said anything.

"what can you tell me James?" Horatio finally broke the silence

"Not much" She shrugged "It's probably one killer, maybe a team of two but I doubt – it seems too personal for a group killing. Are we talking different methods here?"

"Alexx tells me the first body we found was beaten to death, the second one was shot, the one we found right now looks like it's been strangled – the rest of the bodies we can't know for sure right now"

"It looks pretty random to me – he doesn't care that much about the method – it's more about the kill itself" She shook her head as if trying to get the thought out of her head "I don't know – I can't give you anything yet. I don't have enough information"

* * *

Calliegh looked around her at the lab the Covington county forensic unit provided them. It was a long way from the conditions they were accustomed to. The place was old and small – none of the open spaces and cutting age equipment they had back home. She walked over to the lab table and placed the box of evidence she brought back with her from the field, finding a small jar with fragments of a bullet waiting for her – curtsey of Alexx.

Jamie who walked in right behind her smiled slightly as she watched Calleigh pick up the jar and examine the bullet closer to the light "you know, that look you get on your face when you see a bullet or a gun...you scare me sometimes Call' "

Calleigh chuckled and continued to survey the bullet "What can I say – I'm a simple girl. This looks like a small caliber, probably a 52, it's pretty smashed but I think there's enough her for me to work with"

"Well then, don't let me stop you" Jamie cleared the doorway and Calleigh smiled back and disappeared down the hall on her way to the ballistic lab. Once alone, Jamie stepped over to the large box and started unpacking it's content – making sure to keep everything it order and mark all the items carefully. There wasn't a lot to go on but she pulled on her latex gloves and went to work anyway.

"The first brown envelope contained soil samples from the first grave site – she looked around, looking for a microscope, but there wasn't one in the room so she placed the envelope aside for later. The second second envelope contained a piece of plastic that was wrapped around the first body – she picked it up with a pair of tweezers and looked at it under the lamp – but there wasn't anything unique about it at first glance. Another large bag contained a wallet found in the ground next to body number four – the leather was eaten away and the wallet was glued shut from years of sitting in mud and dirt. She used a surgical knife from her kit to open it – there were a few business cards but most of them made out of paper and there for too far gone. She checked carefully until she found what she was hoping for – a laminated card that could be salvaged.

Unfortunately, the card was facing the inside of the wallet and glued to it – preventing her from making out anything written on it. She looked around a bit until she found a small basin and started checking around the shelves for the right ingredients. She mixed a few different kinds of dissolvent, then carefully cut out the wallet around the card and placed it in the basin – leaving it for the chemicals to do their work and separate the card from the wallet.

She was about to head back to the evidence box when there was a knock on the door that made her nearly jump out of her skin. A young lab tech stuck his head through the door and looked relatively concerned at the terrified look she had on her face.

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. They sent me here to give you your pictures"

"My pictures?" Jamie was still slightly panting

"The young man handed her a large stack of freshly developed crime scene photos. She opened the first envelope and started skimming through the photos immediately. In a routine that was almost like second nature to her she pulled out a roll of scotch tape from her kit and started hanging up several pictures on the walls around her – creating a wallpaper of skulld and corpses in various stages of decomposition around her. It was only a few minutes later that she realized the young lab tech was still in the room – watching her with a frown that was a mixture of disgust and confusion.

"It helps me see things more clearly, organize them" she tried to explain in an apologetic tone but her quietly backed out of the room, looking at her in that weird way that made her feel like a freak of nature.

She sighed and went back to work – dedicating a section of the wall for each one of the six victims they had so far, making sure that the she had photos covering every possible angle. When she was finished she sat back down next to the lab table and looked around her for a long time – trying to find a pattern, trying to get a sense as to what they were dealing with.

The phone rang and startled her yet again, and she actually cursed herself under her breath for being so jumpy before picking it up and answering the call.

"Hey James!" As always hearing Speed's voice on the other end of the line made her smile broadly

"How's life on the work detail?" she asked with a smile

"Getting worst by the minute" Speed's voices sounded tiered from the strenuous physical labor

"More bodies?"

"Yeah, 2 more in the last hour" Speed said gravely "We pretty much stumbled onto someone's private cemetery here"

"How many bodies do you think are still out there?"

"I don't know – but we're going to be digging all through the day and probably well into the night. They've just brought down this x-ray machine that should make this a little easier. Did you get anything from the evidence we got so far?"

"I'm just starting out – there's a laminated card in the wallet we found next to body number four – I'm hoping it might give us some idea as to the victim's identity" she replied, still looking around at the pictures that surrounded her "Hey Speed is there any pattern to the graves? Are they organized in some kind of special order?"

"Not that I can see" he sounded pensive, and Jamie could almost see him in her mind casting a long look around the field, considering the possibility "We found body number 7 and 8 practically one on top of the other..."

"would you draw me map?" she asked "Mark where each body was found so we can see if there is some kind of pattern to the burial?"

"I'll get right on it – it'll be a nice change of pace from the digging" he laughed "Horatio will be heading your way soon, I'll send it over with him..."

* * *

Calleigh spent an hour or so cleaning what was left of the bullet carefully with swabs, removing all the remains of dried blood and tissue that covered it. The job required extreme delicacy because she didn't was to jeopardize or alter any of the distinct markings on a bullet that was already pretty degraded.

Once the bullet was fairly clean she placed it under the microscope and carefully examined it – it was a 52 calliber just like she suspected from the beginning but it was custom made and clearly manufactured a long time ago. Even through all the rust and decay she could still make out a few distinct markings that might be useful later.

She took a digital picture of the bullet from all sides and scanned it into the computer – the scanner and the computer system were so outdated it took her three tries to do it. She was just about to run the bullet through the database when Horatio walked in, with Alexx close behind him, in mid sentence.

"We have males, females, different ages, different causes of death..." Horatio sensed that there was something she was holding back but didn't say anything, giving her time to come to it herself "Horatio, there's only one commonality I can point to so far – all victims were black!"


	3. Chapter 2

PART 3

For a few minutes nobody said anything as the realization sank in

"It's racial homicide" Calleigh said gravely, and Horatio thought he noticed an underlined tone that he'd never heard in Calleigh's voice before. He didn't have to bother looking over at Alexx to know how this particular piece of information was affecting her.

"Well" he said carefully "We're in Alabama – and some of these bodies do seem pretty old..."

"And some of the others are pretty new" Alexx said harshly

"I know" Horatio nodded, realizing the subject was touchy "I meant – is there a chance some of these are remains from racial violence taking place a long time ago?"

"And someone just came by and buried a few more black bodies right next to them by mistake?" Alexx's voice still sounded angry "It's some pretty big coincidence"

He noticed that Calleigh was dead silent but decided to leave it alone for now, deciding that whatever was bothering his blond ballistics expert could be dealt with later – and preferable in a somewhat different setting. Instead, he decided to try and change the subject.

"Alexx, do you think you could reconstruct some of those faces – help us get an ID on at least some of our victims?"

"It's gonna take a while – I have to take all the measurements and send them back to Miami, the computer programs here are not nearly as advanced as the ones we have back home" she shrugged

"Do it, we need to attach identities to these victims as soon as possible. Calleigh, see if you can get anything out of the evidence I just brought back – they're mostly from the 6th and 7th victims so maybe they can help us ID them"

"Ill get fingerprints off the victims who're still able to provide them and have an officer run them through the database" Alexx tone returned to the normal business tone and Horatio was glad to see her a little more relaxed as she walked away. He glanced over a Calleigh one more time before leaving – but she didn't raise her head from her work and didn't seem eager to talk in any way.

* * *

Speed jumped on the hood of the jeep and stretched. The sun had gone down hours ago and the entire area was now lit by large spotlights and torches – the sight of the numerous graves lit by fire and dime blue light was somewhat surreal and though he'd never admit it – sent chills down his spin. Beside him, Erik was already stretched across the hood, drinking water straight out of the bottle, his shirt tossed away long ago.

"So how many have we got so far?" Erik asked tiredly "I lost count"

"Well, those two officers over there are currently digging up number 12" Speed pointed to the left "And the special portable x-ray machine the flew down here from Montgomery has already found number 13 somewhere over there..."

"This place gives me the creeps" Erik pronounced what they were both thinking "Whoever's doing this has been real busy..."

"Or maybe he's been doing this for a very long time..." Speed shrugged and jumped off the hood "Anywat, we're off. The local police officers are going to take the night shift so we could get some beauty sleep"

"Thank god" Erik groaned and rolled off the hood, joining Speed by the side of the jeep "I swear, I have pain in muscles I didn't even know I have"

"And here I thought you were in good shape" Speed snickered and climbed into the driver's seat

"So did I" Erik mumbled as they drove off

* * *

Alexx looked around in disbelief when Horatio came into the morgue to check up on her. He looked around, matching her expression and stuck his hands in his pockets "It looks like you could use some help..."

"No kidding" she pulled on a fresh pair of latex gloves on her hands "We have 11 bodies here, and Erik just called and told me there are at least 2 more on the way"

He pulled on a pair of gloves himself and smiled "then how about we get to work?"

The expression on his face made her laugh and forget all about the anger she felt earlier. She knew that she was never really angry at him anyway – Horatio was the last person in to world who'd think racism is acceptable or should be tolerated in any way – and she knew it.

"I thought we should probably do this chronologically – start with what appears to be the latest victim and work our way to the oldest. We're more likely to find usable evidence on the latest victim then we are on the old ones"

He nodded and she directed him to the body already laid on a table in the center of the room. "Horatio, meet Alicia Corvin. 18 years old. We got an ID off her prints. She has a record for petty theft from a convenience store in Seattle 3 years ago."

"Seattle – she's pretty far away from home"

"According to the record Jamie found on her," Alexx said sadly as she patted what was left of the girls skull "She's been a long way from home for a very long time. She's a Runaway. Been in and out of the system for years. She's been dead for at least a week, I'll be able to give you a more accurate time of death once the tests come back"

Horatio leaned in closer to look at the young woman's wounds "Massive trauma to the left side of the skull. Looks like blunt object trauma"

Alexx picked up a pair of tweezers and lifted something from the flesh of the wound, examining it closer under the light "It looks like chips of metal in the wound so we can assume the blunt object was metal, and from the shape of the wounds I can assume it was round shaped – probably some kind of metal pipe"

She dropped the metal chip into a plastic bag and handed it over to Horatio, allowing him to examining it carefully himself "It looks like an old metal pipe too, the metal chips seem to be a little rusty"

"Look at this Horatio" Alexx directed his attention back to the body. She wiped the dirt off the girl's face revealing several bruises on the woman's face.

"What am I looking at here Alexx?"

"Well it looks like a hand shaped bruise across her cheek and mouth, it seems like someone held her down by her face while bashing her head" Alexx stepped back and took a picture of the woman's face "This was certainly done shortly prior to the killing – the bruising didn't have much time to formulate"

With Horatio's assistance Alexx continued going over the body, recording her findings on a tape recorder "No injuries to the upped chest and torso, not a lot of defensive wounds, a few scrapes on the wrists but no fractures or deep tissue damage" She scraped samples from beneath the victims fingernails and placed them in a second plastic bag.

Next, they moved over to the body lying on the other table and started examining it.

"Victim is male, approximately 25 to 30 years old" Alexx talked into the tape recorder again "based on the decomposition of the body, the victim has been dead for about 3 to 6 month. Slight discoloration of the lips which could indicate asphyxiation." She reached over and lifted the victim's eyelids, shining into them with a small flash light "however, there seem to be no blown blood vassals in the eyes..."

At this point Horatio leaned closer to the body and opened the victim's mouth "Alexx, there's a faint scent, Almonds"

"Cyanide" Alexx nodded "That would explain the discoloration of the lips and the lack of markings around the neck. I'll send some tissue over for analysis to confirm it"

"So we have blows to the head, poisoning, gun shot wounds and strangulation – this guy doesn't miss a method"


End file.
